Computer Cord Chaos and too much TV

I kept putting it off. I needed a couple of surge protectors on the computers for the longest time and only had power strips. I finally tackled it today.

I pulled the desk out, unplugged everything, fought the dust bunnies and started from scratch.

I even went so far as to label each plug so I would know what it was later and tied the extra lengths of cords to reduce the mess. This is part of my spring cleaning festival. Yesterday I tackled the kitchen closet (AKA if you don't know where else to put it, throw it in that closet).

You could have spotted me at Walmart-the spring cleaner with a cart piled high with organization bins, boxes and one of those spools to wind the tangled mess of orange extension cord.

I have one closet left-the office closet (AKA when you open the door everything flies out closet). If you watch the show Friends-it's like the closet Monica had under lock and key so no one would no she is actually messy.

I got a DVR recently and have went wild with it. I had no idea I was missing so much TV! I set it to record a show anytime it comes on or a movie that is on when I am away and the next thing you know I have tons of shows to watch.

There is even a handy search feature so I can search for shows I had no idea existed based on a keyword. The best perk is fast forwarding through commercials.

Some of the shows that I normally wouldn't catch that I am now addicted to are:
-Footballer$ Wive$
-Drawn Together
-The Oblongs
-Moral Orel
-Seconds from Disaster
-The Price is Right
-Kath and Kim
-City Confidential
-Distraction

Rick get's to record all of his flyfishing shows, cooking shows, and Larry King Live.

Since I got the new 60" plasma he tapes just about everything in high definition as well! I had no idea how much of a difference high definition was. I'd like to hook up surround sound soon as well.

Parts of our town was evacuated today from a huge grass fire within the city limits. I saw a news flash on and it was towards the area where some of my family live. On top of it all it was windy, about 38-40mph wind. Luckily they contained it and called off the evacuation. The news said 8 homes were lost, but no one was hurt.

I hope everyone has a great TGIF :)

A few wins and boredom...

I got a FedEx envelope yesterday from a GE/Home Depot contest I entered last year and it contained a $50 gift certificate from Home Depot. I need a few small things from there so that is cool.

I also won a lighter from a Camel instant win. I was determined to win that one since I had been playing it for so long!

Taylor had to go back to the vet again-they took his staples out and he itched the spot and opened it back up. So now they used sutures instead-he seems to be leaving it alone for the most part although he is itching were the hair is growing back.

He has been really needy lately so I have been trying to keep him near me. He also is doing a few strange things, like peeing on Brian's leg and getting mouthfuls of food and dropping them in other places throughout the house. Hopefully he won't be doing those for long!

It has been a boring last few days-I'm eyeing my kitchen cabinets and closet to clean them out or the outside shed.

I had a couple of plumbing troubles in the last few days-can't wait to get those bills-yuck.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far :)

Recovering...

I'm slowly starting to feel better from all the scrapes and bruises-still a little down. Taylor is doing good, healing and acting like he is getting back to normal.

I won a couple of things yesterday, a duffle bag from a dorito's instant win and a luggage bag from FedEx. Hopefully this is a good precursor for a trip win??!!

I've been having fun loading up my Ipod with all my cd's, it does more than I thought.

We had a pretty good snow yesterday, it all melted off already, but it was nice to get all the moisture.

Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

F*cked up day

We had a pit bull named Naughty-she was always a mellow dog and never caused any trouble or had ever been aggressive. She was part of the family and, being a pit bull, never caused me any concern about her being around my other dogs.

On Wednesday, she decided to go galavanting, and dug out of the backyard. She got busted by the pound. We paid the fine and brought her home. She was so excited to see us and you could tell she was happy to be home.

We put her in the backyard, and my dog Taylor, who I have had for 7 years was back there. He is a beagle/american foxhound mix, about her same size. He was excited to see her and ran up to her and all of the sudden Naughty attacked him.

I was doing dishes and heard Taylor screaming. Which is an odd thing since he has never barked or made much as a squeek. She had grabbed him by the throat and it was like she went insane.

Rick and his son were out there and were trying to make her let go but she wouldn't. I ran outside and my first thought was to grab her and pull her off but she wouldn't budge. My next thought was to punch her and kick her so she would let go but she wouldn't.

I ran to the faucet to turn the water hose on her, and after a few seconds that seem like minutes of hooking the hose back up, I started spraying her with the sprinker that was attached to the hose.

She finally let go and Taylor ran into the house-she was quick and ran in after him. I got into the kitchen and she had grabbed him by the throat again. I still had the hose and in my kitchen, I sprayed her in the face with the hose again and when that didnt work I started hitting her in the head with the sprinkler that was attached to the hose while punching her with the other hand.

It was so surreal at the time because I lost my dog Reggie in a similar way in 1997 and I wasn't about to lose Taylor the same way.

I punched, kicked, and all but bashed this dog to try to get her lose from Taylor.

Finally, I got her lose from him and he ran into the house while Rick held her.
Taylor was all shook up and on the couch and I ran to check him out. He seemed ok, but there was blood all over me. I found a huge cut on his neck about 4 inches long and freaked out.

I sorta went calm then, to take charge I guess, I told Rick to make sure the other dogs were ok and got Brian to call a Vet to tell them we were on the way, but I was worried since it was after 5pm of who would be open. Luckily the one I picked was open so we made a mad dash and wouldn't you know it my fuel light came on, oy.

Luckily we made it to the vet and Taylory was ok, he got a dose of something that calmed him down, some staples and some antibiotics.

When I finally realized that he was going to be ok, I finally looked at myself and realized I looked worse for the wear. I had cuts all over my hands, both of my knees and elbows were scabbe up and I had a major cut on my hand. I don't remember getting any of them

We all realized at that point that if Naughty had decided to attack one of our other dogs (small dachsunds) or us, it would have all gone down different.

Rick called the pound again, where we had just picked her up, and told them what had happened-to come pick her back up. We knew that they wouldn't adopt her out and put her down.

I am so thankful that Taylor is ok and that it wasn't Petey or Randy she went for, but I feel so horrible that I basically beat the crap out of her before she got put down. But I couldn't and wouldn't ever trust her again to be around Taylor, the other dogs, me, or anyone.

What if it had been one of Rick's or my nephews, or a friend that just happened to be around? I can't even imagine.

So here was this dog that I loved, trusted and even defended when everyone said "eeek it's a pit bull" doing the very thing that everyone feared she would do.

I think Rick and Brian are kinda freaked that I let loose on her, we are all happy that Taylor will be ok but we are all sad that Naughty is gone.

It's all too weird.

Purple weenies and leaky pipes

It wasn't a good day yesterday when the first thing I had to do was call a plumber. He found the leak, fixed it and told me the words I did not want to hear "I think it's time for a total replumbing". I think I aged 2 years from that phone call.

OK, now I have seen it all:



I wish this was a joke! There went my appetite :O

Here is another appetite wrecker although the name is kinda funny:



I hope everyone has a great weekend and that no plumbing calls are in anyone's future!

¡Ay carumba!

Last night I organized my desk and most of the office. Tomorrow I may tackle the office closet, it is one big mess where we shoved all the stray stuff after the move.

Tonight I cleaned out my bedroom closet, going through some old boxes, organizing storage stuff etc. Then I started in on the dresser drawers.

I have a few old tin boxes that I used to collect years ago, and over the years I had stuck stray bits of life in them: a ticket stub, a business card, etc. Back in the mid 90's I took a trip to Mexico and had some leftover money that I stuck in there-the Peso was really weak back then. I also found some Belgian francs and some British pounds that I had leftover from a trip to Europe in 1994.

I sat them aside with the thought of looking on the internet of the conversion rates and kept on cleaning.

I finally sat down and added them all up from the online conversions and while the European money was minimal, the pesos add up to almost $190!! I have some more stuffed in boxes in the closet so I'm hoping that total goes up after I clean it out!

Not much else happened today, I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

A few boring days

Not much has been going on around here. I have been catching up on some movies and books. No wins since February 23rd :( I'm hoping a surprise win will come by USPS, UPS or FedEx soon.

In fact it has been so boring I feel like I need to get out and do something before I go stir crazy-or at least start doing some remodel work on the house. My sleeping habits are all off kilter so I'm going to try to work on that.

I have been wanting to update the kitchen paint and flooring. It is all in good shape and wont cost much. The people before had a thing for all black and white and I want some color in there. They also had a thing for wild colors in the rest of the house like yellow and green in one bedroom and purple and pink in another! Those were the first to go LOL

Rick is on a diet of some sort that a friend of his told him about. I don't think it has a specific name but it limits your sugar and carbs. He has been in a MOOD lately from the sugar withdrawals, so today I told him I have named his diet "The South Bitch" diet!

He is actually doing good on it and working out every other day at the gym-luckily the new diet is only supposed to last 30 days for whatever reason to which I and I'm sure everyone he works with are glad!

Hope everyone is having a great week :)

Good news and bad news

My niece had a nasty fall off of a horse and is in a drug induced coma while her brain is monitored for swelling.

The first day the doctors were not optimistic at all and were preparting everyone for the worst. The next day her brain stopped swelling and went down even. When they tried to slowly wake her up it all went awry and they sent her back down. They are going to try again tomorrow.

My friend Ginger came up to visit which helped a lot. Plus I finally got to meet her pug Winston who felt so at home he hiked in my kitchen twice!

I got my video Ipod in the mail that I won last month, and have won 5 books, a timex indiglo watch, tshirt, a pizza, a movie and 20 two liters of diet coke in the mean time. My total for 2006 is $724.78.

I set my dad up on entering the instant wins to start and the first one he entered he won a lighter from Camel-he was excited and is hooked. He called today and asked me to set him up on high speed internet so he can enter faster!

Hope everyone has a great weekend :)